Asian/American Center Records

The Asian/American Center at Queens College was founded in 1987 by urban studies professor Jack Tchen, author of Yellow Peril!: An Archive of Anti-Asian Fear, and anthropology professor Dr. Roger Sanjek, whose research in the 1980s on the unique pan-Asian communities of the borough of Queens provided the foundation from which the Center started its operations.

The A/AC’s mission, adopted in the 1990s, states, “The Center seeks knowledge that is rooted in local community experience. It also emphasizes an interdisciplinary cultural studies approach in which anthropologists, community activists, historians, social workers, critics, writers, filmmakers, psychologists, and others can come together in a supportive and stimulating intellectual environment, through a range of public programs...the A/AC is concerned about circulating this knowledge back to the living communities it is about, thereby enriching our understanding and dialogue about everyday life and the impact of history and social policy.”

The A/AC was envisioned as a bridge between the campus and the community—a place of praxis where research was relevant and useful, and where communities themselves were the authors of ethnographies and other knowledge about them from the grassroots level up. The early A/AC was also invested in creating relationships across CUNY campuses that were integral to establishing and strengthening Asian American Studies departments and concentrations, which was an emerging field of study at the time.

At a time when notions of who was Asian American were largely limited to Chinese Americans, the A/AC sought to acknowledge the growing diversity of Asian American communities in Queens in the 1980s and 1990s by producing research both about new migrations to the city and about migrations and/or displacement from different parts of the city and Long Island. For example, the research, communications and education materials produced by the A/AC in the 1980s and 1990s, present in the collection, showcase dynamic representation of Queens communities like Indo-Caribbeans and other Asian American immigrants who came from Latin America and the Caribbean.

In the 2000s, under the leadership of Dr. Madhulika Khandelwal and Hong Wu, the Asian/American Center went on to create a translation program, supporting the efforts of health services, social justice, and nonprofit organizations to reach Queens’ multilingual communities. The A/AC also created an Asian American Community Studies (AACS) minor program in 2010 where students were placed in organizations in the field providing critical services, as well as supporting students' development through scholarships and leadership institutes.

In 2023, the Asian American/Asian Research Institute (AAARI), a CUNY-wide organization, absorbed the Asian/American Center.

This administrative history was based on a draft contributed by former A/AC staff member Alison Park.